Twice bold.

Of all the things I want right now, two I need help getting. I wanted them when I went to bed last night, and I still wanted them when I woke up this morning.

Author and novel recommendations - I've been feeling in a bit of a rut writing-wise, and I know a good way out of that would be to read something exciting. Something challenging, and engaging, with engaging characters and a rich plot. Something beautiful. And, possibly, something by a woman.

Basically, I want the female Cormac McCarthy. Or the female Michael Chabon. This isn't a rut I can pull myself out of with plot alone. Last night a friend suggested Come, Thou Tortoise and that sounds excellent, but I'd like something else for when that's over and I can go back to the quieter prose and nonfiction I've got piled up around here.

I know I can ask my dad what Marilynne Robinson he's got on his shelves and what he's got like her - maybe Zadie Smith - but I'd like to support my local libraries if at all possible. So lines, callers, reply buttons.

As for the other thing, well.

A birthday party.

Yes.

I've got a major birthday coming up this March - a really major one, a birthday Patton Oswalt would acknowledge. And it's one I'd like to celebrate. Not something with streamers, but certainly with at least three guests. Not something in my apartment, because five people is the maximum capacity and then only if we all stand, but somewhere everyone could talk and possibly mingle. Given that it'll be March in New York City, in all likelihood it'll probably be indoors. But for all that, I'd still like one.

I know I know enough people in the area to make an attempt at invitations through social networks, even if it's blindly shooting in the dark and I extend the definition of "knowing someone" to "we spoke once at a big gathering." Though it's possible, with several weeks to plan, I might well be able to get something together. I might even have time to practice making birthday cakes.

So I'll test the waters and see what happens when I put the suggestion out there.

Noble and prized.

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Landsailor, Avatar: Legend of Korra - beautiful, heartbreaking, and uplifting character study of Jinora and the new airbenders.

turn a little faster; the world will follow after, Deep Space Nine - a radically different take on post-canon Cardassia than most fics, bucking a lot of fandom trends and coming out stronger for it, wonderful use of minor characters that deserved more screen time and sympathy, genuinely funny as can be and quiet and subdued when necessary, an all-around well-told good story. With a pairing I'd never have guessed but now love just as much as any OTP I could care to name. You'll get what I mean when when you get to the end.

The Grandfather Clause series, The West Wing/X-Men Movieverse - brief pitch, Josh Lyman is a projective and receptive synaesthetic empath because he's a mutant, and he's Magneto's grandson because he has exactly that sort of luck. I spent about two days flailing about this to anyone who'd listen because I'd decided, independent of reading this fic, I'd decided that out of all the characters on The West Wing Josh Lyman was the one who most deserved some pain-in-the-ass superpowers, and then I found these fics existed and my life was made whole and complete.

It's a seamless melding of the two canons, doing what the best crossovers do and use the different parts to comment on and compliment the others, and I wish there were about 30,000 more words of this to bind together and fold up to keep in my back pocket like the best old paperbacks. Utterly delightful, start to finish, and I hope you think so, too.